Currently unavailable

From Our Community

1 Image

“In my earlier tea-obsession days, before I realized the joys of sampling many teas, I bought a 100g tin of this. Since then, I’ve massively regretted it, not because I don’t like the...”
Read full tasting note

“Ages and ages and ages ago, when I first got into tea, I had this tea steeped in-store. She told me to give it 3-4 minutes, so I did. When I drank it, it was bitter and dry and…bland....”
Read full tasting note

From DAVIDsTEA

Yes, it’s true. This blend really does use a superior, organic, Silver Needle white tea. It’s also true that we have been accused of “needless decadence” for having combined these premium buds with beautiful, organic, dried strawberries. But honestly, doesn’t everyone need a little decadence in their lives? The taste is so delicately perfect that it’s worth putting up with some flak.

59 Tasting Notes

In my earlier tea-obsession days, before I realized the joys of sampling many teas, I bought a 100g tin of this. Since then, I’ve massively regretted it, not because I don’t like the tea, but because 100g is an awful lot to finish off before it goes stale when your tea preferences are ever-changing and ever-curious! Anyhow, it occurred to me last night that I should make a cup of this to use some up, so I did! Of course, it was super super late (aka morning), and I ended up going to sleep before even touching it. Fast-forward to when I woke up and sampled the variety of cold teas by my bedside. I tried this one, and couldn’t remember for the life of me what it was… but I thought it tasted like Cantaloupe & Cream! Even though I knew I hadn’t brewed that up super recently. Anyways, it did finally occur to me that it was this tea, and then I tasted light strawberry instead of cantaloupe, but I was reminded that I really must try a straight silver needle tea, because it’s clearly the common thread between those two teas, and I really, really like it!

Anyhow, I’m rambling. I’ve had a bad day filled with new project deadlines and endless sample grinding and I’m tired and drinking cold tea. At least it’s tasty cold tea.

White tea love!!!
First time in ages… I’m drinking a cup of white tea and lurrrvin it. Now, I can’t decide if I love it 97 points worth, but I can’t bear to change the rating because this was my first tea luv.
It’s funny, for the longest time after I started disliking teas I refused to delve into this one again for fear that I’d end up hating this, and I really, reallllly did not want to hate this one. I would rather remember a tea fondly and never have it again, than try it one day and all of a sudden think it akin to bathwater.
But then today, I don’t know what came over me. I just had to have this!! Oh wait, I know why… it’s because DT is “revamping” this and I needed to see if it’d be worth scouting out some more before they ruin it (heh, I’m not jaded at all am I?!)
I’ve noticed that the quality of leaf and flavouring they use has declined of late, and so my gut feeling says that whatever they do to this tea, it will never be the same :(
Talk about a bittersweet moment!

DanielScott:
It IS disturbing!! Before I started going to David’s regularly, they had some blends that were a bit pricier but better quality. Margaret’s Hope for example, was a fave of many here, or so I’ve been told…
Then I noticed that their straight teas don’t resteep well at all. The TKY has an odd hollow quality to it. The Milky Oolong is kindof fake tasting.
Also, when I’ve compared a David’s tea to the same from another company, I’ve personally found the taste far superior.
Finally, their ingredients were at one time pretty straightforward. Now, if you look at the list it often includes a generic but worrisome “flavouring”, which is usually a good indicator that when I’ll dislike the taste.
Personally, I just think it’s a product of David’s expanding too quickly-Trying to keep costs down and turnover high.

Interesting. I have noticed the “flavour” thing, although I don’t mind it. I think if people start riding them on it though, they could improve. They have generally shown themselves to be very responsive to customer feedback.

Now, personally, I don’t care if they sell inferior blends of tea so long as I find them pleasant to drink and the price point reflects it. On the latter part, I’m not convinced it does, BUT their prices are similar to Teaopia’s, so I can’t say they aren’t locally competitive.

Got a question for you actually, Indigobloom – have you ever seen a male staff member at DT? I ask because I thought at first that it was just my location and thought nothing of it…I figured that it was mostly women that applied there or something. But I’ve now compared notes with people across a few locations, and it appears that they’re staffed exclusively by women (or almost, except no one has actually seen a guy). I find that very weird, as I myself work for a really girly soap/lotion/perfume retailer, and we are mostly staffed by women…but largely because that is who apply, guys that apply get hired often as well.

Now, men have better job opportunities in many places besides retail (which is mostly women), but it strikes me as odd because tea is not a gendered thing like even the beauty industry (which still hires men!). Ever seen a guy associated with DT besides David himself?

I agree with you on the flavouring issue. I guess I am more sensitive to it, because it tends to disagree with my stomach.
As for the gender issue… I had noticed that about most of their locations!! until recently that is. I think they must have changed their recruitment strategy because all of a sudden I’ve seen a heck of a lot more diversity in the staff. (mostly still white, which I dislike because I work in HR and that seems more odd than the gender issue, but then I could be imagining it)
At the DT location near my work, which just opened six months ago, there are atleast three guys that I can recall. I was at the Scarborough town centre not long ago and saw one there, as well as at Erin Mills. Again, this is all very recent. I suspect that once the organization expanded to a certain size, they fell into a different category in regards to labour law considerations and upped their strategy, but that is just my hypothesis, I could be wrong!

Also, while tea should have no feminine/male associations, I’ve seen guys refer to tea as “girly” or “sissy”, or remark that they need something more “manly” like a strong coffee- which I disagree with but there really is nothing I can say to change their mind! trust me I’ve tried haha

Daniel the Westboro store in Ottawa has a few male staff members. And I think they have a couple of other ethnicities as well. And the girl that made me an amazing Chai Latte (actually 2 since we went back when leaving the mall) I believe was African American.

De: I think it does.. I could be wrong, the day I went we were at two malls…
Aisling: I dunno, it’s just a trend I’ve noticed, for my personal tastes. Whatever I have at DT, I can almost always find a better quality version for a similar price. And anything artificial in tea (ie. generic “flavouring”, to me, is not the best quality lol)

that’s a fair point… it’s possible it could be just me. I mentioned it to some of the staff there to see if they had noticed it and the manager said that some of the teas seem to have been downgraded. but that is just anecdotal. Without any actual proof it’s really hard to say.
The other thing is, I’ve seen a few people post about DT teas having a funny sortof aftertaste where others don’t, which I kinda noticed as well. Not sure what that’s about… maybe it’s the tins they are stored in. Or the bags…

Ages and ages and ages ago, when I first got into tea, I had this tea steeped in-store. She told me to give it 3-4 minutes, so I did. When I drank it, it was bitter and dry and…bland.

I came across a website a few months ago that highly recommended giving white teas a mere 30 seconds. I laughed, but I tried it and I’ve never looked back.

But because of that first experience, I never tried this tea again until today. As suspected, I fell in love. I adore strawberries and iced white tea, so this is right up my alley. The fruit taste is light and tasty, but not overwhelming and you can really taste the white tea. A definite win.

Preparation

I’ve stayed away from whites because I figure they are too finiky for a “novice” in the tea world, and I am terrified of the price, oolongs were such a waste of money until someone explained them too me..

No, no, we’re not going to wish our days away, we’re going to savour each and every one we get. Right? I’m in a bit of a funk because in a month it’ll be Christmas and it’s not that I am sad about that. No, no… I’m sad because my baby girl will be turning a year old on Xmas Eve and it feels like time is just flying by too fast! One moment I’m holding a wrinkly newborn in my arms, the next she’s motoring around the apartment attempting to unpack the newly washed laundry!

When I’m feeling nostalgic I reach for good, old Strawberry White. Reminds me of a simpler time: newly married, no baby, life was less hectic, and even though I am happy with where things are now I drink this tea and it immediately relaxes me! Plus it tastes just as good cold, which is inevitable with a busy baby around to make one forget about the cup of tea they just steeped.

This is an interesting tea. I can’t decide how I feel about it. The sweetness of the strawberry seems to conflict with the hay in the silver needle. It’s strange. The immediate aftertaste is cloyingly sweet strawberry fruit snacks. But once that fades, the taste that lingers is actually pretty great. Just perfect silver needle with a light strawberry essence. That after aftertaste is what I like most about this tea and keeps me sipping. I think I’ll re-steep this one and continue to enjoy it! Thank you Kittenna for sharing yet another great tea with me!

Preparation

Well, this tea seems to have seriously split reviews, and I’m not going to help with that. It’s fine enoguh, but not my thing. I’ve suspected for some time that I don’t really like white tea all that much, and this has sort of convinced me. I don’t get very much strawberry taste, I mostly just get white tea, and that doesn’t really excite me too much. I definitely don’t feel like re-buying this one. The dry smell is similar to DT’s White Tiger (which I did like) but it mostly just becomes a sweet white tea once steeped.

For my tastes, definitely. but my tastes play more to strongly flavoured teas. If I want to drink propwer tea, I will, but if I want a strawberry white tea I want the strawberry to have done more than walked through the cup : )

I cold-brewed this overnight as I knew I’d be in a rush this morning. It was nice having something to drink as I got ready all too early for my liking.

This was surprisingly flavourful for being cold brewed. The strawberry was sweeter, and the white tea flavour came through quite strongly. It was alright but I don’t know if I would do this again. I can’t decide how I feel about this tea, but I think it is better hot.

Sure! It is great because it’s so easy I feel silly explaining my method.

Before I go to bed, I’ve got in the habit of just putting tea leaves in my large Libre tea glass (http://libretea.com/shop-libre/libre-glassn-poly-large/) and pouring drinking water in. Then I leave it in the fridge and drink it when I get up and am too groggy to properly prepare tea.

You can use any kind of brewing container or just any bottle/thermos and strain it, of course. I’ve found herbal teas and honeybush work really well, but I’ve had fun experimenting with greens and this white. It’s usually recommended that you use more tea than you would for hot tea, but I find if I’m leaving it overnight that’s often not even necessary. Also, I’ve read somewhere that caffeine doesn’t get extracted this way which could be good or bad!

Aisling of tea’s recent slew of strawberry teas made me crave my own strawberry or raspberry tea, only to discover that this is the only pure flavor of those two that I have. So, even though its not my favorite, decided to make some of this for my after-supper lounge.

This tea is actually kind of growing on me. It’s faint and subtle and light, and the strawberry flavour just barely peeks through the white tea, which is actually the perfect balance for this tea. I even had a second steep of this, and enjoyed it even more. Upping my rating for this one…

Does anyone have suggestions for a nice DT raspberry tea, other than Raspberry Nectar?

Uniquity – You would THINK Raspberry Nectar would be raspberry-ish. I can’t even stomach the smell of it, though, so I never got around to tasting it.

Tina – Forgot about Fantasy Island! Too bad that one never won me over. And, thank you! I forgot that I could look foward to the season’s change. What says spring better than berries, hmm? And maybe if I send them a REALLY convincing letter…

I did a 30 second steep this time instead of 3 minutes and it was soooo much better! I could taste the strawberry and it complimented the white tea perfectly. Good for many steeps too. It’s delicate but not very complex. Sweet and lovely!

I like plain white tea and will drink it thus but next time I will buy the plain stuff if I want just the white tea with a no extras experience.

Seems criminal to charge so much and make me have great expectations only to find out I paid for a basic white tea with no extras.This is even more disappointing because most of the other white teas from DT that promise extras..deliver.

It tastes like a nice white tea but because of my disappointment I’m rating it also based on price and what was promised.